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A Navy squadron out of Jacksonville is helping search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

As the Times-Union first reported Sunday, a P-8A Poseidon crew attached to Patrol Squadron VP-16, the War Eagles of Jacksonville Naval Air Station, joined the search on Friday,according to the U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet Command.

Meanwhile, there may be a new clue in the search. Four military planes were disspatched today (Thursday) to determine whether two large objects bobbing in a remote part of the Indian Ocean are debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines. You can read more about that part of the story here.

Military planes from Australia, the U.S. and New Zealand have been searching in a region over the southern Indian Ocean that was narrowed down from 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) to 305,000 square kilometers (117,000 square miles).

The NAS Jax team is using the jet-powered P-8A Poseidon, which is the Navy’s newest patrol aircraft. Deployed on Nov. 29, Squadron VP-16 is the first to use the aircraft, which primarily is intended for anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, the squadron’s commanding officer Bill Pennington previously told the Times-Union.

It likely will fly missions over the southern section of the Bay of Bengal and northern portion of the Indian Ocean, Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters during a Friday news media briefing.

The P-8A Poseidon crew joined two U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers, the USS Kidd and USS Pinckney, which are among a flotilla of about 40 ships and 40 aircraft from a dozen different nations searching for the missing Boeing 777. The P-8A is expected to alternate days with a P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft during the search, according to the Seventh Fleet.

VP-16 squadron officials couldn’t be reached for comment Sunday. NAS Jacksonville public affairs personnel didn’t immediately return Times-Union telephone messages. However, the P-8A Poseidon role in the search is described briefly on the fleet’s Facebook page.

The P-8A Poseidon is replacing the Navy’s aging fleet of P-3 Orions, which were introduced in the 1960s. The War Eagles were chosen for the new aircraft because the timing and circumstances matched up for the Navy’s rollout of the Poseidon, Pennington previously said.

Among the new plane’s assets are its speed and altitude. The P-8A Poseidon can fly farther, faster and higher than the propeller-driven P-3 Orion. In addition, the P-8A Poseidon only needs nine crew members while the P-3 Orion requires 11.

The squadron’s seven-month deployment called for it to go to Okinawa, Japan, which is in the Seventh Fleet’s area of responsibility supporting security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific, according to the Navy.